Arvind Adiga wins Man Booker Prize 2008 for his debut book The White Tiger.
Arvind got the 50,000 Pound prize for a book described by the chairman of the judges as revealing “the dark side of India” at a glittering ceremony Tuesday night in London’s Guildhall attended by the literary who’s who of the British capital.
The 33-year-old former journalist said his book – the story of Balram Halwai, a village boy who becomes an entrepreneur through villainous means – aimed to highlight the needs of India’s poor.
Chairman of the judges Michael Portillo said Adiga – only the third debutant to win the award in its 40-year-history – won because judges felt that his book “shocked and entertained in equal measure.”
“It is a fact that for most of the poor people in India there are only two ways to go up – either through crime or through politics, which can be a variant of crime,” Adiga, the fifth Indian-origin writer to win the prize, told the BBC.
He is the fifth Indian-origin author to win, joining V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai.
Adiga dedicated the prize to New Delhi, where he has lived for many years.
“It’s a city that I love and a city that’s going to determine India’s future and the future of a large part of the world. It’s a book about Delhi, so I dedicate it to the people that made it happen,” he said.
“It’s an attempt to dramatise this and get it into literature. It’s meant to be a fun book and to engage its readers,” said Adiga, who beat off competition from five other authors, including fellow Indian Amitav Ghosh, nominated for his “Sea of Poppies”.
